Monicagate: Did Press Do Its Job?

Published: November 20, 1998

To the Editor:

There is no better illustration of why members of the Washington press corps are vying with Kenneth W. Starr and Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee as the most reviled people in America than Maureen Dowd's response to the accusation of being one of the journalists who have overplayed the Monica Lewinsky story (''So Don't Like Me,'' column, Nov. 18).

The danger is not, as Ms. Dowd says, that journalists will fail to cover the next scandal. The danger is that when the press next uncovers an abuse of power that is truly a matter of ''life and death,'' it will have compromised its ability to be taken seriously.